The hybrid spatialities of transition: capitalism, legacy, and uneven urban economic restructuring

This paper conceptualises post-socialist urban economic geographies through the notion of hybrid spatialities that emerge from the mutual embeddedness of neoliberalism and socialist legacies. While the dismantling of state socialism was a massive moment towards the exacerbation of uneven development, ironically it is the socialist-era spatial legacy that has become the single major differentiating factor for the economic status of cities. This superficial overdetermination, however, masks the root causes of uneven development that must be seen in the logic of capitalism and its attendant practices which subsume legacy, recode its meaning, and recast the formerly equalitarian spaces as an uneven spatial order. The authors argue that the socialist legacy, rather than being an independent carrier of history, has been alienated from its history to become an infrastructure of neoliberalisation, conducive to capitalist process. The paper draws specifically on the experiences of Russia, although its reflections should reverberate much more broadly

Russian Regions in the Acute Phase of the Coronavirus Crisis: Differences from Previous Economic Crises of the 2000s

Abstract: The article examines the dynamics of the socioeconomic development of the Russian regions and the state of their budgets in the acute phase of the coronavirus crisis in April–May 2020. Differences in the rate of decline are revealed, due not only to the severity of quarantine measures, which affected the consumption indicators, but also the structure of the regional economy, which strongly influenced the industrial production dynamics and budget revenues. The rapid increase in the level of registered unemployment in almost all regions is due to the impact of quarantine restrictions on the market services sector, which is the most developed in large cities, as well as institutional measures (increase in the size of benefits and streamlined registration). The regional dynamics of the main indicators during the three crises of the 2000s are compared and significant differences are revealed in the distribution of regions by the rate of decline. The regional profile of each crisis was different due to its factors, risk zones, duration, and depth of the decline. The coronavirus crisis is aggravated by the fact that in most regions, the decline of the previous crisis in 2015 has not yet been compensated, which may lead to a protracted recovery from the 2020 crisis

Development of the Russian Space: Barriers and Opportunities for Regional Policy

The article considers main concepts of spatial development. It, in principle, cannot be uniform, which is confirmed by the central-peripheral theory and studies of processes of spatial concentration of the economy, including within the framework of the “new economic geography” of the middle and the end of the 20th century. In the conditions of a super-centralized management system and the huge inertia of the Russian space, institutions (political, financial, etc.) play a special role, which allow reducing the objective barriers to the development of regions and cities, making maximum use of their competitive advantages. The author analyzes in detail the barriers to Russia’s spatial development, as well as the experience of carrying out an incentive and equalizing regional policy. With a general assessment of the problem of regional inequality, highlighted are the most important aspects that are necessary to understand the “corridor of opportunities” for Russia’s modernization and development. In conclusion, six main vectors of spatial strategy are briefly formulated, based on the evaluation of development trends not only in a crisis, but also in a longer retrospective

The Scylla and Charybdis of Regional Policy

This article calls upon policy makers in Russia to take a more robust, comprehensive approach to the design and implementation of a macroregional development policy.